Status of Commercial Fisheries in the Kingdom of Bahrain | ||
| Basrah Journal of Agricultural Sciences | ||
| Article 1, Volume 26, 1 (special Issue), July 2013, Pages 220-238 PDF (0 K) | ||
| DOI: 10.33762/bagrs.2013.111658 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Thamer S. Ali; Asma A. Abahussain | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The present paper is concerned with annual catch of commercial fisheries in the Kingdom of Bahrain 2004-2009 based on landing statistics provided by the General Directorate for the Protection of Marine Resources. The Bahrain’s fisheries are categorized into three fishing grounds; Northern, Eastern and Western areas. The northern area comprised the majority of the total fisheries accounting, as overall, 51.3% followed by the eastern area (38.7%) and the lowest from the western area (10%). In the northern area, the finfish fisheries forming 59.4% over the period 2004-2009 followed by shrimp fisheries (17.1%) then crab fisheries by 12.2%. The eastern fisheries showed that the crab fisheries formed the majority of the catch with an overall percentage 44.6%, followed by finfish fisheries (34.4%) and then shrimp fisheries (15.0%). However, in the western area, the results obviously revealed that finfish fisheries largely forming 60.8% of the total catch, followed by crab fisheries (29.1%), whereas the shrimp fisheries constituted 5.6%. The annual catch of six most commercial finfish species (Rabbit fish; Siganus canaliculatus, Groupers; Epinephelus coioides, Spangled Emperor; Lethrinus nebulosus, Spanish Mackerel; Scombermorous commerson, Doublebar Bream; Acanthopagrus bifaciatus and Grey Grunt; Plectorhinchus sordidus), shrimps; Penaeus semisulcatus and crabs; Portunus pelagicus have been investigated at each fishing ground and the average price rates were described. Generally, the results showed a decrease trend for commercial catches over the investigated period synchronized with noticeable increase in price rate. As a result of deterioration in fish stock due to overfishing and increasing in population growth rate by ~ 7% during 2000-2010, the per capita fish consumption substantially declined to less than 10 kg/year in 2009 in comparison with ~25 kg/year in the 1980s. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Finfish; Shrimps; Crabs; Fish per capita; Bahrain | ||
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